


The Celebration of Khara Naran

by 0bsidianFire



Series: Static Tuned in to Reason [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Astronomy, Au Ra Xaela (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, Headcanon, Holidays, Legends, Storytelling, Theorycrafting, Tumblr: FFXIVwrite2019, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bsidianFire/pseuds/0bsidianFire
Summary: The Celebration of Khara Naran is the most sacred of holidays to the desert tribes of the Nhaama Desert. Unfortunately, it only rarely happens. But whenever it does, all the tribes put aside their differences and gather at Aragibal Khaat, the large Khaat the Kagon control. There they rejoice in Nhaama’s greatest defeat over Azim.For FFXIVwrite2019 - Prompt #30: Darkness
Series: Static Tuned in to Reason [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/860852
Kudos: 5





	The Celebration of Khara Naran

Kharagal first got wind of the celebration when Jagadai rushed into a lesson between her and Ugdan Toragana. “Is it… what I think it is?” There was an edge to the excitement in his tone that usually wasn’t there. He looked up at the ceiling of the tent. “The aether up there feels…”

Toragana looked up from where she was braiding beads into her hair. “Like the Diurnal and Nocturnal aether is flipping somehow?”

Jagadai stared at her and nodded. “It’s the night of the full moon… but–”

“Go tell Udgan Bayan what you’re feeling. He’ll tell Khan Yerentai.” Jagadai nodded and left. Ugdan Toragana let out one of the most contented sighs Kharagal had ever heard from her. “Ah… The Celebration of Khara Naran…” Toragana’s fingers fell limp in her hair. “How I longed to see it once more…”

“The Celebration of… the Black Sun?” Kharagal looked at Toragana in puzzlement. “What’s that?”

Ugdan Toragana gave Kharagal a sly look and went back to braiding her hair. “You know what they say about when Nhaama isn’t in the sky on the first day of the month?”

Kharal smirked back. “They say she’s on the earth hiding from Azim.” Really, the moon orbited the planet in exactly one month’s time. If you knew where to look, you could actually see it in the daytime. Most Xeala didn’t look for her, but then, Nhaama had never not approved of stealth and trickery. Finding her had never been easy when she willed it to be otherwise.

“Well, sometimes she doesn’t stay there. Sometimes she goes back to the heavens and reminds Azim of the day she stopped him from shining.” Ugdan Toragana laughed at the look of disbelief Kharagal gave her. “Sometimes the place the moon is in the sky lines up with the place the sun is in the sky. It usually happens twice a year, and always on the first day of the month.”

“Why have I never heard of it then?” It sounded like something Kharagal should have at least found mention of before now.

“It can’t be seen from everywhere,” Toragana shrugged. “The angle’s not right.” She hummed. “Do you remember how six months ago Jagadai went all stir-crazy?”

“Yeah.” Kharagal raised an eyebrow at Toragana. Usually, Jagadai was the calm one. She had wondered what was going on to make him so agitated and had gotten no definite answer from him at the time.

“That was one such alignment,” said Toragana. “He’s probably felt such things before, but that would have been before he learned how to attune his aether with the state of the sky.” She chuckled. “Now his connection is so strong, he can feel such an alignment long before it actually happens.”

“What does the alignment look like?” It had to be something special to get this kind of reaction from Udgan Toragana.

“It’s…” Once again, Toragan let out a long, contented sigh. “Beautiful… I’d describe it for you, but it wouldn’t do it justice.” She reached out and cupped Kharagal’s cheek in her hand so their eyes met. “I promise you this: you will see Nhaama in her  
truest form during the Celebration of Khara Naran. And you will never forget the sight of her in all her glory for all your days.”

* * *

Aragibal Khaat is never so crowded as it is during the Celebration of Khara Naran. The Kagon are there, obviously. But so are all the other desert tribes as well as some of the few independent desert Xeala clans that belong to no tribe at all. Urumet carry their elders on their shoulders as they walk next to gaunt Bairon who make camp alongside naked Torgud. Even the Dotharl come to rekindle their ties with their fellow desert tribes and for once, they don’t ride in on their yols. At night, the Kagon leave their tents and the Meirqid open up their supply caches and everyone feasts together regardless of what tribe they are originally from. This goes on for a week.

The dusk before the Celebration, the udgen from all the tribes build a huge bonfire. Nhaama is the barest sliver of a crescent in the sky. As she sets, the udgan begin telling the Retreat of Nhaama, the story of how Nhaama flees from Azim into the desert and establishes the six great desert tribes. They tell it all together; all the udgan of the desert tribes speaking as one. But when they get to the part where Nhaama establishes the tribes, they only say the lines that apply to their own tribe.

The Udgan of the Kagon recall how Nhaama told them to hide from Azim’s gaze so he couldn’t steal them for his own and how they still have yet to see the face of Azim.

The Udgan of the Urumet recall how Nhaama explained how the high ground had advantage over the low ground and how ever since they have carried their elders on their shoulders so they may see further than anyone else.

The Udgan of the Torgud recall how Nhaama gave them the secret of inks and paints that would protect them from Azim’s harsh light and how they still clothe themselves in nothing but Nhaama’s gift.

The Udgan of the Bairon recall how Nhaama taught them how to survive in the harshest places of the land and how even now they live in the lands no other Xaela can survive in.

The Udgan of the Mierqid recall how Nhaama showed them all the routes she used to flee from Azim and how they still know all of them so well they will never not know where to go.

The Udgan of the Dotharl recall how Nhaama blessed them to never rest in the land of the dead while their souls desire to fight for her and how there are still members of the Dotharl who carry the original blessing of Nhaama.

Then all the Udgans’ voices come back together and describe how Nhaama recovers in the desert, in the one place Azim has scorched the life from with his might. Nhaama claims it for herself and that is where true night falls on the land for the first time. The Retreat of Nhaama ends with Nhaama on the border of the desert and the steppe ready to bring the battle back to Azim.

Throughout it all, everyone is silent in awe and wonder and pride. This is the story of their beginning and what a story it is!

* * *

In some ways, the actual day of the Celebration of Khara Naran started like any first day of the month. Kharagal helped organize the cache of supplies that would be left behind and buried. She and Toragana went over the geometries she had come up with in the last month and teased out what would most likely work and what wouldn’t.

In other ways, it was not like any other first day of the month. Jagadai and everyone else Kharagal knew used stellar aether was jittery. They kept watching where the sun was and it seemed like something was up with their spells that depended on if they were attuned to the day or the night.

Toragana finally said it was time just after midday. Kharagal joined her family where they were camped next to their relatives in the Kagon tribe and stared. Their Khagon relatives were outside in the full strength of daylight.

Grandfather Ligdan laughed at her expression. “It’s all right.” He glanced up at the sun he never got to see. “Azim is most… distracted at the moment.”

Kharagal quirked an eyebrow at him and sat down on the course rug next to Jagadai and Aruktai. She looked up at the sun with them. Jagadai was staring as close to the sun as he dared. Unlike Nhaama, Azim was always too strong to look at. “It’s happening…” Jagadai got out, too focused on whatever he was seeing in the aether to say anything else.

For a long time, it looked like nothing was happening. Then it started getting steadily darker. Kharagal felt her jaw go slack. _No way._

There was a black hole in the sky where the sun should be.

* * *

Overhead, the sun dims as Nhaama blocks out Azim’s light.

For five whole minutes, Nhaama brings forth dusk in the middle of the day.

The entire horizon has the red blush of a sunset with no sun. The roof of the sky is the inky purple of night. The stars of six months earlier glitter against it.

All around the great Khaat of Aragibal, the desert Xeala stand together not as separate tribes, but as one people to bear witness as Nhaama revels in her power over Azim. Azim may pursue her, may cause her to remember how he wounded her when the moon runs red with blood, but he will never be able to bring his dawn to her night. Not like she can bring her dusk to his day. In this, she will forever triumph over him.

* * *

The day before the Meirqid were to leave Aragibal Khaat, Kharagal was in Udgan Toragana’s tent. “So… what’s the end of the story of the Khara Naran?” Kharagal grinned up at Toragana from where she was practicing her aether control by braiding shining strands of aether together. The stories about Nhaama and Azim may or may not have been true in a historical sense, but everyone knew that what happened in the physical world reflected a truth of the aetherial world. That the moon could bring darkness in the middle of the day meant Nhaama really did do something significant to Azim at one point even if they had mostly made up by now.

Toragana laughed, her fingers combing out her hair. “Azim’s defeat at Nhaama’s hands marks when he finally starts leaving her alone. She could have killed him, but she didn’t. He decided to follow his childrens’ example of not fighting her children and see if she would abide by the same practice. And for the most part they both have.” Toragana smiled, the razor-edged smirk of a warmage. “But Nhaama has always kept herself and her children battle-ready in case Azim decides to make war with her again. So far, he has yet to, but that can always change, can it not?”

Kharagal gave Toragana the same smirk. “It can indeed.” Come what may, the Xeala, Nhaama’s children, would always have the strength to see their goddess-mother’s battle through. That was her gift to them and a gift they would never squander, so long as they roamed their lands.

**Author's Note:**

> Khara Naran roughly translates to "black/dark sun" in Mongolian. Given that the Xaela worship the sun and moon, eclipses are probably a Big Deal to them culturally. Especially solar eclipses. A sun god getting eaten by something is always a big deal…
> 
> They also probably have a bit more complicated opinion on Light = Good/Dark = Bad given that Nhaama is the Duskmother and brings darkness and is the origin of the Xeala. Even though she herself is a source of light…


End file.
